Blackstone Minerals (BSX:AU) has announced Blackstone Secures New Diamond Drill Rig to Advance Mankayan
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Blackstone Minerals (BSX:AU) has announced Blackstone Secures New Diamond Drill Rig to Advance Mankayan
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Samsung Electronics has entered into a $16.5 billion contract for supplying semiconductors to Tesla, based on a regulatory filing by the South Korean firm and Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s posts on X.
The memory chipmaker, which had not named the counterparty, mentioned in its filing that the effective start date of the contract was July 26, 2025 — receipt of orders — and its end date was Dec. 31, 2033.
However, Musk later confirmed in a reply to a post on social media platform X that Tesla was the counterparty.
He also posted: “Samsung’s giant new Texas fab will be dedicated to making Tesla’s next-generation AI6 chip. The strategic importance of this is hard to overstate. Samsung currently makes AI4.TSMC will make AI5, which just finished design, initially in Taiwan and then Arizona.”
“Samsung agreed to allow Tesla to assist in maximizing manufacturing efficiency. This is a critical point, as I will walk the line personally to accelerate the pace of progress,” Musk said on X, and suggested that the deal with Samsung could likely be even larger than the announced $16.5 billion.
Samsung earlier said that details of the deal, including the name of the counterparty, will not be disclosed until the end of 2033, citing a request from the second party “to protect trade secrets,” according to a Google translation of the filing in Korean on Monday.
“Since the main contents of the contract have not been disclosed due to the need to maintain business confidentiality, investors are advised to invest carefully considering the possibility of changes or termination of the contract,” the company said.
The company’s shares rose over 6% in trading on Monday to reach their highest level since September 2024.
Tesla was a probable customer, Ray Wang, research director of semiconductors, supply chain and emerging technology at The Futurum Group, told CNBC before Musk’s post. Bloomberg News had earlier reported that Samsung’s deal was with Tesla, citing a source.
Samsung’s foundry service manufactures chips based on designs provided by other companies. It is the second largest provider of foundry services globally, behind Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.
The company stated in April that it aimed to commence 2 nanometer mass production in its foundry business and secure major orders for the next-generation technology. In semiconductor technology, smaller nanometer sizes signify more compact transistor designs, which lead to greater processing power and efficiency.
Local South Korean media outlets have also reported that American chip firm Qualcomm could place an order for chips manufactured using Samsung’s 2 nanometer technology.
Samsung, which is set to deliver earnings on Thursday, expects its second-quarter profit to more than halve. An analyst previously told CNBC that the disappointing forecast was due to weak orders for its foundry business and as the company has struggled to capture AI demand for its memory business.
The company has fallen behind competitors SK Hynix and Micron in high-bandwidth memory chips — an advanced type of memory used in AI chipsets.
SK Hynix, the leader in HBM, has become the main supplier of these chips to American AI behemoth Nvidia. While Samsung has reportedly been working to get the latest version of its HBM chips certified by Nvidia, a report from a local outlet suggests these plans have been pushed back to at least September.
After spiraling from crisis to crisis over much of the past seven years, Boeing is stabilizing under CEO Kelly Ortberg’s leadership.
Ortberg, a longtime aerospace executive and an engineer whom the manufacturer plucked from retirement to fix the problem-addled company last year, is set this week to outline significant progress since he took the helm a year ago. Boeing reports quarterly results and gives its outlook on Tuesday.
So far, investors are liking what they’ve been seeing. Shares of the company are up more than 30% so far this year.
Wall Street analysts expect the aircraft manufacturer to halve its second-quarter losses from a year ago when it reports. Ortberg told investors in May that the manufacturer expects to generate cash in the second half of the year. Boeing’s aircraft production has increased, and its airplane deliveries just hit the highest level in 18 months.
It’s a shift for Boeing, whose successive leaders missed targets on aircraft delivery schedules, certifications, financial goals and culture changes that frustrated investors and customers alike, while rival Airbus pulled ahead.
“The general agreement is that the culture is changing after decades of self-inflicted knife wounds,” said Richard Aboulafia, managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory, an aerospace consulting firm.
Analysts expect the company to post its first annual profit since 2018 next year.
“When he got the job, I was not anywhere as near as optimistic as today,” said Douglas Harned, senior aerospace and defense analyst at Bernstein.
Ortberg’s work was already cut out for him, but the challenges multiplied when he arrived.
As the company hemorrhaged cash, Ortberg announced massive cost cuts, including laying off 10% of the company. Its machinists who make the majority of its airplanes went on strike for seven weeks until the company and the workers’ union signed a new labor deal. Ortberg also oversaw a more than $20 billion capital raise last fall, replaced the head of the defense unit and sold off its Jeppesen navigation business.
Ortberg bought a house in the Seattle area, where Boeing makes most of its planes, shortly after taking the job last August, and his presence has been positive, aerospace analysts have said.
“He’s showing up,” Aboulafia said. “You show up, you talk to people.”
Boeing declined to make Ortberg available for an interview.
Boeing’s leaders hoped for a turnaround year in 2024. But five days in, a door-plug blew out of a nearly new Boeing 737 Max 9 as it climbed out of Portland. The almost-catastrophe brought Boeing a production slowdown, renewed Federal Aviation Administration scrutiny and billions in cash burn.
Key bolts were left off the plane before it was delivered to Alaska Airlines. It was the latest in a series of quality problems at Boeing, where other defects have required time-consuming reworking.
Boeing had already been reeling from two deadly Max crashes in 2018 and 2019 that sullied the reputation of America’s largest exporter. The company in May reached an agreement with the Justice Department to avoid prosecution stemming from a battle over a previous criminal conspiracy charge tied to the crashes. Victims’ family members slammed the deal when it was announced.
For years, executives at top Boeing airline customers complained publicly about the manufacturer and its leadership as they grappled with delays. Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary told investors in May 2022 that management needed a “reboot or boot up the arse.”
Last week, O’Leary had a different tune.
“I continue to believe Kelly Ortberg, [and Boeing Commercial Airplane unit CEO] Stephanie Pope are doing a great job,” he said on an earnings call. “I mean, there is no doubt that the quality of what is being produced, the hulls in Wichita and the aircraft in Seattle has dramatically improved.”
United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby cast doubt over the Boeing 737 Max 10 after the January 2024 door-plug accident, as the carrier prepared not to have that aircraft in its fleet plan. The plane is still not certified, but Kirby has said Boeing has been more predictability on airplane deliveries.
Still, delays for the Max 10, the largest of the Max family, and the yet-to-be certified Max 7, the smallest, are a headache for customers, especially since having too few or too many seats on a flight can determine profitability for airlines.
“They’re working the right problems. The consistency of deliveries is much better,” Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan said in an interview last month. “But there’s no update on the Max 7. We’re assuming we are not flying it in 2026.”
Boeing under Ortberg still has much to fix.
The FAA capped Boeing’s production at 38 Maxes a month, a rate that it has reached. To go beyond that, to a target of 42, Boeing will need the FAA’s blessing.
Ortberg said this year that the company is stabilizing to go beyond that rate. Manufacturers get paid when aircraft are delivered, so higher production is key.
“I would suspect they would be having those discussions very soon,” Harned said. “It’s 47 [a month] that I think is the challenging break.”
He added that Boeing has a lot of inventory on hand to help increase production.
Its defense unit has also suffered. The defense unit encompasses programs like the KC-46 tanker program and Air Force One, which has drawn public ire from President Donald Trump. Trump, frustrated with delays on the two new jets meant to serve the president, turned to a used Qatari Boeing 747 to potentially use as a presidential aircraft, though insiders say that used plane could require months of reoutfitting.
Ortberg replaced the head of that unit last fall.
A strike could also be on the horizon at the defense unit after factory workers “overwhelmingly” rejected a new labor deal, according to their union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 837.
“The proposal from Boeing Defense fell short of addressing the priorities and sacrifices of the skilled IAM Union workforce,” the union said Sunday. “Our members are standing together to demand a contract that respects their work and ensures a secure future.”
There is a seven-day cooling off period before a strike would begin, if a new deal isn’t reached.
“They’re not totally out of the woods,” Harned said.
Boeing and Ortberg also need to start thinking about a new jet, some industry members said. Its best-selling 737 first debuted in 1967, and the company was looking at a midsize jetliner before the two crashes sent its attention elsewhere.
“Already there’s been a reversal from ‘read my lips, no new jet.’ I would like to see that accelerate,” Aboulafia said. “He is the guy to make that happen.”
The Los Angeles Chargers were one of the surprises of the AFC in 2024. The team had its first 11-win season in six years and made the wild-card round of the playoffs in its first year under coach Jim Harbaugh.
As they head into year two under the new regime, the franchise is handsomely rewarding one of its top young players.
The Chargers announced they have agreed to a four-year, $114 million extension that includes $92 million guaranteed with left tackle Rashawn Slater. This makes Slater the highest-paid offensive lineman in NFL history.
Slater was entering the final year of his rookie contract and this keeps him with the team through the 2029 NFL season.
Los Angeles drafted Slater in the first round, No. 13 overall in the 2021 NFL Draft. He was the second offensive lineman selected in the draft after the Detroit Lions selected Penei Sewell at No. 7 overall.
Slater was one of the best tackles in the NFL as a rookie. He started 16 games, made the Pro Bowl and earned second-team All-Pro honors.
A biceps injury ended his 2022 season in Week 3. He returned for a full year of action in 2023 and, in 2024, was one of the top tackles in the NFL, making the Pro Bowl once again.
The first-ever Athletes Unlimited Softball League championship goes to the top-seeded Talons.
After winning a rain-delayed Game 1 in the AUSL championship series, the Talons completed the two-game sweep of the Bandits on Sunday, July 27 with another delayed victory at Rhoads Softball Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Sydney Romero’s solo home run with one out in the top of the sixth inning broke a scoreless tie and provided the winning margin in a 1-0 championship-clinching victory. It was the former Oklahoma star’s first homer of the postseason and just her second of the season.
The first game in the best-of-three series was postponed a day earlier in the bottom of the sixth inning on Saturday as the Talons led the Bandits 3-1. `
With the skies clear on Sunday morning, the Talons closed out the victory to put themselves on the brink of a title.
Game 2 was a classic pitcher’s duel between the Talons’ Montana Fouts and the Bandits’ Taylor McQuillin. They matched zeroes through the first four frames before the rain forced another delay in the top of the fifth inning.
Once the skies cleared, Fouts – playing on the same field where she starred collegiately at Alabama – returned to the mound for the Talons. Meanwhile, the Bandits turned to their ace Lexi Kilfoyl, who took the loss in Game 1.
With the game still scoreless in the sixth, Romero caught up with a fastball at the top of the strike zone and deposited it over the wall in left field to break the scoreless tie.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Bandits’ Bubba Nickles-Camarena nearly tied the game with a long drive that hit just a few inches away from clearing the wall in left-center field. But she was erased one batter later on a line drive that was snagged by Talons first baseman Tori Vidalis, who dove back to the bag and beat Nickles-Camarena for the double play.
Fouts then struck out Bella Dayton to complete the shutout and the championship-clinching 1-0 victory.
Much has been made about Deion Sanders’ future in Boulder due to a mysterious health issue that has limited his offseason participation with Colorado football and his sons − Shedeur and Shilo − in the NFL playing for the Cleveland Browns and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, respectively.
On Monday, July 28, the college football world at large may be getting some answers on what may be on the horizon for the Colorado coach.
Sanders will be holding a press conference alongside his medical team to provide ‘team and general updates. It will be his first news conference of the 2025 fall camp for the Buffaloes.
While no one but Sanders is entitled to know his health status, rumors have swirled due to his limited involvement in Colorado’s spring and summer camps. Sanders appeared in good spirits at Big 12 media days, praising Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark for continually checking in on him, Colorado AD Rick George for taking a chance on him, and the other coaches in the Big 12.
Sanders ultimately declined to expound upon his health at media days, saying he was ‘here to talk about (his) team.’
Sanders and his medical team will be speaking to media Monday, July 28 at 1 p.m. ET, 11 a.m. MT (Boulder local time). It is unknown what the specific updates will be.
North Carolina Central head coach Trei Oliver accused a Virginia Tech coach of tampering last season, and the Hokies are now looking into the matter.
Oliver raised the accusation at a media event on July 25 when he was asked about his top ‘you got to be kidding me’ story. The fifth-year coach said prior to the contest against Howard − the final home game of the season − he noticed a Virginia Tech staff member on his team’s sideline.
‘Virginia Tech was actually on my sideline recruiting our running back,’ Oliver told said, according to WRAL News.
The running back wasn’t named, but Oliver said it was a player that ended up transferring to Virginia. J’Mari Taylor was the team’s leading rusher in 2024 and is now with the Cavaliers.
Oliver recalled assistant coaches were trying to calm him down about the situation but he was agitated by seeing the Virginia Tech staff member. In that game, Taylor ran for a season-high 206 yards and three touchdowns in a victory.
After Oliver’s comments, Virginia Tech released a statement that it reviewing the accusations.
‘This is the first time the issue has been brought to our attention, and no concern has previously been shared with us through any formal channel,’ the statement read. ‘Virginia Tech takes all NCAA rules seriously and is committed to conducting our program with integrity. We are reviewing the matter internally and will address any findings appropriately.’
After the alleged incident, Oliver was glad to see his player not end up with the Hokies, and hopes Virginia ‘kick Virginia Tech’s butt.’ Taylor is expected to have a major role in Virginia’s offense.
The annual ‘Commonwealth Clash’ between the Cavaliers and Hokies will take place in the 2025 season finale on Nov. 29 in Charlottesville.
Tight end Jake Ferguson and the Cowboys agreed to a four-year, $52 million extension with $30 million guaranteed. This deal makes Ferguson the highest-paid tight end in Cowboys history.
Dallas drafted Ferguson in the fourth round, No. 129 overall in the 2022 NFL Draft. He started eight games as a rookie and took on a larger role in his second season.
In 2023, Ferguson set career-highs in catches (71), receiving yards (761) and receiving touchdowns (five) and made his first Pro Bowl.
He was held scoreless in 2024 as the Cowboys offense struggled without franchise quarterback Dak Prescott in the lineup for much of the season.
Ferguson may be the highest-paid tight end in Cowboys history, but this deal makes him the seventh-highest-paid tight end in the league by average annual value (AAV). Per OverTheCap, Ferguson slots in behind Cleveland’s David Njoku ($13.68 million AAV) and ahead of Chicago’s Cole Kmet ($12.5 million).
Ferguson was entering the final year of his rookie deal prior to this extension. The Cowboys state this extension will free up $1.8 million in salary cap space for 2025.
Ferguson assumed a larger role in the Cowboys’ offense in 2023 following Dalton Schultz’s departure. Here’s a look at his stats year-over-year:
Cowboys fans are hoping the team’s top young star gets an extension done soon as well in edge rusher Micah Parsons. They voiced their displeasure during Dallas’ ‘Opening Day Ceremony’ at training camp, shouting ‘Pay Micah!’ to owner Jerry Jones as he took the stage to address the crowd.
Like Ferguson before his extension, Parsons is entering the final year of his rookie deal. He’s been one of the best defenders in the league since his rookie season in 2021 and has been at least a second-team All-Pro in three of his first four seasons.
Parsons has reported to training camp but previously spoke about his frustration with the negotiations.
He stated his representation tried to get an extension done last offseason but the franchise said they were focusing on deals for Prescott and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb instead.
Dallas hasn’t come together on a deal since the end of the 2024 season. This comes while other top edge rushers like Maxx Crosby, Myles Garrett and T.J. Watt all signed long-term deals.
‘I will never understand it,’ Parsons said on former WWE wrestler The Undertaker’s podcast, Six Feet Under. ‘We wanted to do the contract last year – then you go out there and perform again. You would think, ‘Alright, we’ll get it done early, we know some guys are about to get re-paid.’ There’s Myles [Garrett], Maxx [Crosby] is going, so you would think, ‘Hey, let’s get ahead of that.’
‘You can’t want us to take less (now) because you’re the one that decided to wait.’
International Graphite (IG6:AU) has announced Agreement to develop new Expandable Graphite facility
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International Graphite (IG6:AU) has announced Comet share sale and debt repayment
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